PRIME SPACE

What does it really mean to pursue the MCC credential?

In this episode of PRIME SPACE, Elias Scultori, MCC, is joined by Annalise Koltai, MCC, to explore her journey from discovering coaching as a distinct professional craft to earning her Master Certified Coach credential with the International Coaching Federation.

But this isn't really a conversation about credentials.

It is a conversation about excellence.

Annalise shares what she learned about the difference between coaching and other helping professions, the value of coach-specific training, and what happened when she became willing to approach her own coaching with a beginner's mind. She talks candidly about the uncomfortable parts of the MCC journey—including examining the habits, assumptions, and personal patterns that had become embedded in her work.

Together, Elias and Annalise explore a central question for every professional coach:

What does it mean to remain committed to becoming better at this craft?

They discuss deliberate practice, supervision and mentor coaching, the relationship between preparation and presence, and why letting go in the coaching session is only possible when we have done the work beforehand.

The MCC, as this conversation makes clear, is not the end of the journey. It can be the beginning of a deeper commitment to the craft.

Because excellence isn't something we achieve once. 
It is something we continue to practice.

PRIME SPACE is produced by PRIME Coaching Academy, where these conversations continue through our ICF-accredited coach training programs.

PRIME Coaching Academy
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What does it really mean to develop as a coach?

In this episode of PRIME SPACE, Elias Scultori explores three interconnected dimensions of professional development: skills development, personal development, and business development. Rather than treating them as separate areas, Elias argues that they are different dimensions of the same coaching practice—and that neglecting one inevitably affects the others.

From listening and questioning to money, practice agreements, self-awareness, and the sustainability of a coaching business, this conversation examines how the whole person shows up in the coaching relationship.

Elias also explores the relationship between mentor coaching, coaching supervision, reflection, and personal development—and challenges the idea that skills development can be separated from reflective practice.

Because the coach is never separate from the coaching.
Three dimensions. One coach.

Chapters

00:00 — Welcome to PRIME SPACE
01:27 — Three dimensions of coach development
02:43 — Where do our coaching skills actually come from?
03:54 — Who is doing the listening?
05:10 — The questions we ask reveal who we are
06:11 — Why skills development requires personal development
07:38 — Developing self-awareness as a coach
08:27 — What happens in us while we coach?
09:27 — Coaching is a Human-to-Human Experience
10:51 — Why business development matters to coaching
11:19 — How business affects the coaching relationship
12:35 — When business and coaching mindset collide
12:53 — Three dimensions of one practice
14:18 — The value of working with a senior practitioner
14:37 — Mentor coaching, supervision, and professional development
15:45 — Why skills and reflection cannot be separated
16:42 — Looking underneath the skill
17:44 — Reflection without movement doesn't propel growth
19:09 — Develop seriously, continuously, and holistically
20:08 — Three dimensions. One coach.

PRIME SPACE is produced by PRIME Coaching Academy, where these conversations continue through our ICF-accredited coach training programs.

PRIME Coaching Academy
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What if building a coaching practice doesn't require you to leave your current job?

In this episode of PRIME SPACE, Elias Scultori, MCC, welcomes Joel Dietz, PCC, ACTC, for an unexpected addition to our conversation about developing a coaching business.

Joel shares his experience of building a coaching practice while continuing to work full-time in HR and organizational development. Rather than making the often-assumed leap from employment to independent coaching, he found ways to coach within his existing organization, develop his experience, build relationships, and gradually create the foundation for a future independent practice.

The conversation challenges the idea that there is one right way to become a professional coach or build a coaching business. For some coaches, an independent practice may be the right path. For others, internal coaching, a side practice, organizational work, or a gradual transition may make more sense.

The question isn't simply, "Should I leave my job and start a coaching business?"

It may be: "What is the right coaching practice for me, right now?"

If you're a coach building your practice, accumulating coaching experience, considering a transition from corporate work, or looking for ways to create coaching opportunities where you already are, this conversation offers a different perspective on business development for coaches.

Chapters

00:11 — An unexpected addition to the business development series
00:58 — Meet Joel Dietz, PCC, ACTC
02:43 — The pressure to build a coaching business
05:01 — There is no one way to build a coaching practice
06:03 — Using employment as a foundation for your coaching practice
07:10 — What is the right path for you?
08:45 — Finding coaching opportunities inside your organization
11:54 — Building coaching experience at your current job
14:08 — Using organizational resources to build your coaching toolkit

Memorable Quotes

"There is no one way of doing this."
"You can get very creative about opportunities to do what you love where you already are."
"What is the practice that suits each one of us in this particular moment?"

PRIME SPACE is produced by PRIME Coaching Academy, where these conversations continue through our ICF-accredited coach training programs.

PRIME Coaching Academy
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Many coaches are told they need to "find their niche" before they can build a successful coaching practice. But is that really true?

In this final episode of the five-part series on business development, Elias Scultori, MCC, welcomes back PRIME Coaching Academy co-founder Amy Donovan, MCC, to explore niching.

Together, they examine both the advantages and the limitations of this level of marketing focus, discuss why labels can unintentionally dilute the power of coaching, and explain why coaches should first become deeply grounded in the true proposition of coaching before worrying about positioning.

Rather than rushing to define a niche, they invite coaches to experiment, coach widely, and let experience—not anxiety—reveal where they naturally create the greatest impact.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• The real purpose of choosing a niche
• When specialization becomes a limitation
• Why coaching labels can create unrealistic client expectations
• Why experimentation should come before specialization
• Thomas Leonard's perspective on finding your niche
• How clarity about coaching matters more than clarity about marketing

Whether you're launching your coaching practice or refining an established one, this conversation offers a more thoughtful and sustainable approach to business development.

Chapters
00:00 – Introduction
01:36 – Should Every Coach Have a Niche?
03:15 – The Advantages of Specialization
04:22 – When Niching Becomes Too Narrow
06:13 – The Opportunities You're Not Seeing
08:06 – The Problem with Coaching Labels
09:45 – Protecting the True Value of Coaching
11:35 – Coaching vs. Consulting
12:06 – Final Advice for Coaches
12:35 – Coach First. Find Your Niche Later.
13:52 – Closing

Memorable Quotes
"Niching is a marketing strategy—not your professional identity."
"Don't wait to find a niche before you start coaching. Coach first. Your niche will find you."
"Clarity about coaching matters more than clarity about marketing."
"When we dilute coaching, we also dilute its transformational potential."
"People don't ultimately want your expertise—they want to trust their own."

PRIME SPACE is produced by PRIME Coaching Academy, where these conversations continue through our ICF-accredited coach training programs.

PRIME Coaching Academy
We go a step further...

Many coaches dream of leaving corporate life and building their own coaching practice. But what does that transition really require?

In this episode of PRIME SPACE, Elias Scultori welcomes executive coach Mike Alles, PCC, for an honest conversation about what it took to leave a successful 25-year corporate career and build a thriving coaching business.

Mike shares why passion alone wasn't enough. Preparation, resilience, relationships, and a genuine belief in the power of coaching all played an essential role. Together, they explore the difference between running away from something and running toward work that is deeply aligned with your purpose.

Whether you're considering launching your coaching practice or looking for renewed perspective on the work you already do, this conversation offers practical wisdom and thoughtful encouragement.

In this episode:

• Why purpose matters more than escape
• Preparing before taking the leap
• Leveraging your professional experience as a coach
• The role of resilience in business development
• Using your network without "selling"
• Why coaching must be more than just a career choice
• Practical advice for coaches building a practice

Connect with Mike Alles

• O2 Leadership
• LinkedIn

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction
• 01:00 Mike's journey from corporate leadership to coaching
• 03:10 Finding purpose before taking the leap
• 06:10 Preparing before leaving corporate
• 09:30 Building a successful coaching practice
• 12:40 Why passion matters
• 14:50 Advice for coaches considering entrepreneurship
• 16:15 Business development, resilience, and the numbers game
• 18:15 Final reflections

Memorable Quotes
"Make sure you're running toward something—not simply running away from something."
"Passion gives you the resilience to survive the difficult days."
"Your coaching practice is often the evolution of everything you've done before."
"Success rarely comes from a leap alone. It comes from years of preparation."
"Believe deeply in coaching before asking others to invest in it."

If this conversation resonates with you, follow PRIME SPACE, leave a review, and share the episode with another coach.

PRIME SPACE is produced by PRIME Coaching Academy, where these conversations continue through our ICF-accredited coach training programs.

PRIME Coaching Academy
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Visibility opens the door. Trust is what sustains it. 
That's where great coaching businesses are built.

In the third episode of our five-part series on practice development, I sit down with Renata Lerch, ACC—Vice President of Marketing & Communications at the International Coaching Federation (ICF)—to explore what marketing really means for professional coaches.

Drawing on decades of experience leading global marketing initiatives across Fortune 500 companies, startups, associations, and now the ICF, Renata offers a refreshing perspective that moves beyond tactics and social media algorithms. We discuss why every coaching conversation influences the reputation of our profession, how coaches can build trust before asking for business, and why clarity and consistency matter far more than constant self-promotion.

We also explore the ICF's broader role in advancing coaching worldwide, protecting professional standards, and shaping the future of the profession.

Whether you're just beginning your coaching practice or looking to strengthen an established business, this conversation offers practical guidance grounded in professionalism, ethics, and long-term credibility.

In this episode

• The ICF's role in promoting and protecting the coaching profession
• Every coach's responsibility in shaping public trust
• Why coaching excellence is your strongest marketing strategy
• Building credibility before selling your services
• Creating a memorable professional identity
• Referrals, digital presence, and consistency
• Why marketing should be viewed as service—not self-promotion
• How AI is changing the way potential clients discover coaches

Renata also shares details about her complimentary Marketing Lab for Coaches—a practical workshop designed to help coaches clarify their message and strengthen their marketing approach.

Connect with Renata Lerch on LinkedIn.

If this conversation resonates with you, I encourage you to reach out to Renata, follow her work, and let her know you discovered her through PRIME SPACE.

Chapters

• 00:42 Meet Renata Lerch
• 02:56 How the ICF advances and protects the coaching profession
• 10:13 Every coach's role in building public trust
• 15:21 Practical marketing advice for coaches
• 20:24 Renata's complimentary Marketing Lab
• 22:14 Closing thoughts

Memorable Quotes

"The future of coaching doesn't belong only to organizations like the ICF. It belongs to every single coach."

"You don't need to be famous. You need to be memorable."

"Build trust before you ask for business."

"Don't think of marketing as self-promotion. Think of it as service."

"The quality of our work shapes the reputation of our entire profession."

PRIME SPACE is produced by PRIME Coaching Academy, where these conversations continue through our ICF-accredited coach training programs.

PRIME Coaching Academy
We go a step further...

Marketing feels uncomfortable for many coaches. Visibility doesn't have to.

In this second episode of the Business Development series, Elias Scultori invites coaches to stop thinking about marketing as selling and start thinking about it as visibility.

When we don't have clarity about why coaching and why us, marketing easily becomes forced, uncomfortable, and performative. But when we are genuinely convinced of the value coaching brings, visibility becomes an act of service rather than self-promotion.

Elias explores why so many coaches stay hidden behind endless planning, social media strategies, certifications, and preparation instead of simply showing up where their potential clients already are. He offers a practical framework for becoming visible by building authentic relationships, engaging with communities, and allowing others to experience the coaching mindset firsthand.

Building a coaching practice isn't about becoming a better salesperson.
It's about making sure the people who need your work know you exist.

In this episode:
00:00 – Continuing the Business Development series
02:08 – Why coaches resist marketing
04:14 – Replacing the "M word" with the "V word"
05:52 – Visibility as an act of service
07:51 – When marketing becomes authentic
08:45 – The two practical steps to becoming visible
10:13 – Going where your potential clients already are
11:14 – Letting people experience coaching
12:26 – Relationships before clients
14:01 – What really fills your coaching pipeline
15:03 – Stop hiding. Become visible.

Memorable Quotes
"We can't be a secret."
"Building a coaching practice should be based on the joy of sharing this process we are so proud of."
"Find out where your potential clients are. Go and put yourself in front of them."
"The world is thirsty for what you have to offer."
"Become visible, and the world will respond."

PRIME SPACE is produced by PRIME Coaching Academy, where these conversations continue through our ICF-accredited coach training programs.

PRIME Coaching Academy
We go a step further...

Business development can feel uncomfortable for many coaches. Perhaps that's because we've been starting in the wrong place. We invest years refining our coaching skills, yet often struggle to attract clients and build a sustainable practice.

In this opening episode of a new PRIME SPACE season, Elias Scultori, MCC, challenges the conventional marketing advice that dominates the coaching industry. Rather than beginning with websites, social media, niches, or branding, he argues that effective business development starts with the coaching mindset itself.

Introducing a simple framework that connects skills development, personal development, and business development, Elias explores why these three dimensions are inseparable. He then offers two deceptively simple questions that every coach should answer before creating another marketing plan:

Why coaching?
Why you?

The answers to these questions become the foundation for every conversation with prospective clients, every marketing decision, and every coaching practice built with authenticity and integrity.

If you're looking for a more human, values-driven approach to growing your coaching practice, this conversation is the place to begin.


Chapters
01:16 - Why business development matters for coaches
02:01 - The three dimensions of coaching success
04:15 - Coaching is also a business
06:08 - Why traditional marketing feels uncomfortable
08:29 - When marketing contradicts the coaching mindset
09:29 - Two questions every coach must answer
17:55 - A different path to building your practice

Memorable Quotes
"We're using marketing strategies to sell something that often contradicts what coaching actually is."
"Our coaching mindset is our most powerful business development tool."
"People aren't simply hiring your methods. They're choosing to spend time with you."

PRIME SPACE is produced by PRIME Coaching Academy, where these conversations continue through our ICF-accredited coach training programs.

PRIME Coaching Academy
We go a step further...

What does it truly mean to be an “expert” coach?

In this reflective season finale of PRIME SPACE, Elias Scultori, MCC, explores a profound moment from his recent conversation with Ann Fogolin, MCC — a moment that opens the door to one of the deepest paradoxes in coaching: the more we grow, the more aware we become of how much we do not know.

Drawing from the foundational coaching tenets taught at PRIME Coaching Academy, Elias reflects on the idea that coaching is both a humbling and courageous act. In a profession often shaped by expertise, performance, and recognition, what happens when the coach steps out of the spotlight and creates space for the client’s own wisdom, power, and humanity to emerge?

This episode is an invitation to reconsider the role of knowledge, certainty, identity, and ego in the coaching relationship — and to explore the courage required to truly listen, remain curious, and serve without the need to be “the one who knows.”

A thoughtful closing to Season 4, this conversation speaks not only to coaches but to anyone interested in leadership, presence, growth, and authentic human connection.

Chapters

00:11 — A Moment from “The Future of Coaching”

01:09 — What Real Experts Understand

02:06 — The Coaching Tenets

03:21 — Coaching as a Humbling and Courageous Act

05:21 — The Human Need to Be Right

06:29 — The Illusion of Knowing Another’s Experience

07:45 — When the Coach Becomes the Center

08:52 — Humility, Presence, and Empowerment

10:08 — The Courage to Truly Listen

Memorable Quotes

“Coaching is a humbling and courageous act.”

“What do we truly know about what is happening in the heart of this person in front of us?”

“That’s when we begin to truly listen.”

“Humility and courage. That’s at the core of coaching.”

PRIME SPACE is produced by PRIME Coaching Academy, where these conversations continue through our ICF-accredited coach training programs.

PRIME Coaching Academy
We go a step further...

In this heartfelt episode of PRIME SPACE, Elias Scultori, MCC, explores one of the most overlooked realities of the coaching profession: isolation.

Behind the meaningful conversations, transformational moments, and professional growth, many coaches quietly navigate their practices in isolation. After the energy and connection of coach training programs fade, coaches often find themselves building businesses, holding complex client situations, and reflecting on ethical dilemmas alone.

This episode is a reminder that coaching was never meant to be a solitary path.

Elias reflects on the essential role of coaching communities, mentor coaching, supervision, peer reflection, and professional organizations in sustaining not only coaching excellence, but also emotional well-being, ethical clarity, and professional resilience.

From ICF communities and peer coaching spaces to mentor relationships and industry associations, this conversation is an invitation to reconnect — not only with other coaches, but with the shared humanity at the heart of the profession.

If you have ever questioned yourself as a coach, felt isolated in your work, or hesitated to ask for support, this episode is for you.

In this episode

• Why coaching can become an isolating profession
• The hidden emotional cost of working alone
• The importance of reflective practice and community
• Why “a coach needs a coach”
• Shame, vulnerability, and asking for support
• The role of mentor coaching and supervision
• Building sustainable professional relationships
• How coaching communities strengthen ethical practice
• Why volunteering and participation matter
• Finding your professional “home” as a coach

Memorable Quotes

“Humans are social creatures. We need each other — and as coaches, we need other coaches.”

“For a coach, having a coach is an ethical issue.”

“We cannot do this alone.”

“This is an opportunity for us to exercise our transparency, authenticity, vulnerability, and live the coaching mindset.”

Chapters

00:13 – The loneliness many coaches experience

01:49 – The power of coaching community

02:54 – Coaching through complex client situations

03:53 – Why coaches also need coaching

05:17 – Shame, vulnerability, and asking for help

06:34 – Reflective practice and the coaching mindset

07:50 – Finding community through professional organizations

09:07 – Volunteering, contribution, and authentic connection

10:23 – Closing reflections and season four finale preview

PRIME SPACE is produced by PRIME Coaching Academy, where these conversations continue through our ICF-accredited coach training programs.

PRIME Coaching Academy
We go a step further...